Teenage girl assaulted on NSW beach

A teenage girl has been indecently assaulted on a beach north of Sydney, police say. Source: AAP

A TEENAGE girl has been indecently assaulted while walking along a beach on the NSW Central Coast.

The 18-year-old was approached by a man near a surf club on Terrigal Esplanade at Terrigal about 1.30am (AEDT) on Sunday.

He tried to talk to the teenager but when she ignored him he followed her to the water's edge and indecently assaulted her, police said.

The offender is described as being of caucasian appearance, aged in his mid to late 20s, about 183cm tall with a large build, dark short hair and dark bushy eyebrows.

He was wearing a white T-shirt with a motif on the front and blue jeans at the time of the attack.

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15 rescued from sunken Russian ship

RUSSIAN emergency officials say five more sailors have been rescued from a fishing vessel that capsized in the Sea of Japan, but 15 are still missing.

Ten members of the 30-man Russian-Indonesian crew had already been found in one lifeboat and rescued by a passing freighter.

The fishing vessel Shans-101 capsized on Sunday off of Russia's Pacific coast. The ITAR-Tass news agency cited a representative of the ship's owner as saying the vessel was hit by two waves just as it had changed direction. Ten minutes later, the crew was ordered into the life boats.

The state news agency reported on Monday that eight of the 15 missing crew members had died and their bodies were put into the sea. The search is continuing.

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Five rescued from overturned boat

Five people have been rescued after their boat overturned off Rottnest Island. Source: AAP

A MAN has been plucked from the sea and four others picked up by a rescue vessel after their craft overturned seven kilometres off the western tip of Rottnest Island.

RAC Rescue joined with Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) to locate the boat following an EPIRB activation on Monday.

RAC Rescue winched one man from the water while four others were picked up by the Rottnest Island Ranger's vessel.

The winched man was taken to Rottnest Island where he received treatment at the local nursing post.

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Philippine extremists hold onto hostages

AL-QAEDA-LINKED Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the Philippines are refusing to free foreign hostages but the militants have no immediate plans to harm them, a spokesman for another Muslim rebel group says.

Hundreds of rebels of the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed an autonomy deal with the government in 1996, are near Patikul on southern Jolo island to negotiate the release of hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf in its jungle lairs.

Abu Sayyaf militants are believed to be holding two European birdwatchers, a Japanese treasure hunter, a Jordanian journalist, a Malaysian man and at least two Filipinos hostage.

The Moro rebels are mainly found in rural villages on Jolo, where the smaller but more violent Abu Sayyaf also has a presence.

Moro rebel commander Khabir Malik says his group is seeking freedom for the hostages to help the government clean up the image of Jolo, a poor Muslim region where the Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for bombings, high-profile kidnappings for ransom and beheadings, mainly about a decade ago.

US-backed military offensives have crippled the Abu Sayyaf in recent years but it remains a national security threat. Washington has blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organisation.

Malik said he met an Abu Sayyaf militant, Jul-Asman Sawadjaan, to seek the release initially of a Jordanian journalist and two Filipinos, believed to be held in Patikul's jungles since June last year.

However, the extremists showed no sign they would free their captives soon, Malik said.

Other Abu Sayyaf commanders are believed to be separately holding two European birdwatchers, a Malaysian man and a Japanese treasure hunter in Jolo's jungles.

Malik said the Moro forces could consider other options - including a rescue operation and armed confrontation with the hostage-takers - to secure the captives' freedom."

Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan said the Moro rebels were acting on their own but added he recently convened a meeting of a provincial crisis committee to be prepared for any possible clashes between the two rebel movements.

The Moro commanders, he said, would not be permitted to take any step that would compromise the safety of the hostages.

"There is no crisis now but we have to be ready if one erupts," Tan said.

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31 dead after Egypt football riot verdict

A Cairo court has handed down death sentences over the deaths of 74 people in a stadium riot. Source: AAP

CLASHES killed at least 31 people in the Egyptian city of Port Said as violence raged into the early hours of Sunday in several cities including the capital following death sentences passed on 21 football fans after a riot.

The unrest came after a day of deadly protests against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, highlighting deep political divisions in the country and long-standing tensions between police and protesters.

Trouble flared just minutes after a court on Saturday handed down the death sentences against fans of Port Said club Al-Masry after 74 people were killed in post-match violence last February following a match with Cairo side Al-Ahly.

Health ministry spokesman Ahmed Omar said 31 people died in the canal city.

In Cairo, police clashed with protesters on the outskirts of Tahrir Square - the symbolic heart of the revolt that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 - firing volleys of tear gas, witnesses said.

Demonstrators blocked the 6 October bridge, a vital flyover linking east and west Cairo, as police and masked protesters clashed on the Nile corniche.

Many Egyptians believe last year's deadly stadium riots in Port Said were orchestrated either by the police or by Mubarak supporters, and any verdict was likely to trigger a highly charged response.

Diehard Cairo football fans known as Ultras had threatened widespread chaos if justice was not served, but Port Said residents said the ruling was politically motivated.

Ultras were among the most vocal and active members of the opposition in the anti-Mubarak revolution.

"The government delivered a political ruling that sacrificed our children to avoid chaos," Ashraf Sayyed, who lives in Port Said, told AFP.

"Our children are the scapegoats used to restore calm in the rest of the country."

On Saturday, protesters in Port Said attacked police stations and relatives of those sentenced to death clashed with security forces as they tried to storm the Port Said jail holding the defendants.

Some attackers used automatic weapons against police who responded with tear gas, witnesses said.

Medics told AFP all the fatalities were from gunfire.

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Indonesia landslides kill 11, 19 missing

TWO landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 11 people and left 19 others missing on Indonesia's Sumatra island, officials said on Sunday.

The National Disaster Management Agency said seven people were killed and three people were injured in a landslide in Agam district in West Sumatra province early on Sunday.

"At this point, seven people were found dead and three others were injured... and 18 were missing," agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a text message.

Fifteen houses were also buried by the landslide, he added.

Separately, a landslide caused by heavy rains late on Saturday killed four workers at a drilling site belonging to PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy in Kerinci district in Jambi province, the company said in a press release.

"The landslide killed four people, injured five people, and left one person missing. All victims were workers who were drilling," it said.

Floods and landslides are common in Indonesia, which is prone to frequent bursts of heavy rain.

Heavy rain in the capital Jakarta this month caused 32 deaths and at its peak forced nearly 46,000 people to flee their inundated homes, Nugroho told AFP earlier.

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Brisbane and Ipswich brace for floods

PARTS of Brisbane and Ipswich will flood but the levels will not be as devastating as they were in 2011, authorities say.

If current projections play out, 3600 residential properties will be affected in Brisbane and of those, 2100 are unit dwellings where only ground floor flooding is expected.

About 1250 business properties are also expected to be affected in Brisbane while about 50 homes are projected to be inundated in the Ipswich suburb of Goodna.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says flood peaks would be much less than what was experienced in 2011.

Brisbane is expecting a 2.6 metre flood peak, nearly half of the 4.46m peak in 2011.

The Ipswich peak is expected to be five metres less than the 19.4m level in 2011.

"There will be flooding but the flooding is much much lower than what we saw in 2011," he said.

Mr Newman said the projections were based on the best scientific modelling by forecasters.

There would be minor floods in the Brisbane River, and in the Bremer River that flows through the city of Ipswich to the west of Brisbane.

"The peak of any flood will occur in Ipswich we believe around midnight (AEST) tomorrow (Monday) night," Mr Newman said.

"Similarly the peak at the western side of the Brisbane City Council boundary will be about midnight on Monday night."

Moggill is projected to be the first Brisbane suburb to be flood-affected on Monday afternoon.

Mr Newman said flood maps would shortly be released by the Brisbane and Ipswich councils, showing lists of affected suburbs.

The worst of the projected flooding would be seen further downstream around noon on Tuesday, with another peak expected at noon on Wednesday.

"If it doesn't occur, then I'm sorry in advance," the premier said.

"We want to give the communities in Brisbane and Ipswich, on the Brisbane and Bremer rivers, the best possible information as soon as it is available."

He urged people not to panic, but to check the flood maps and to prepare if they were in an area that may flood.

Mr Newman said there was flooding in the Lockyer Creek and the Bremer River which fed into the Brisbane River downstream from the Wivenhoe dam.

However rainfalls are easing in the Brisbane and Stanley river catchments, which flow into Wivenhoe and Somerset dams.

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French raids on Islamist bases in Mali

FRENCH fighter jets bombed Mali's far northern Islamist stronghold of Kidal and destroyed the home of the head of an al-Qaeda-linked group, a security source and local official said.

"There were air raids on Islamist bases in Kidal," 1,500 kilometres north of the capital Bamako, a Malian security source said, adding that the home of Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) chief Iyad Ag Ghaly was destroyed.

A local official gave a similar account.

"The French planes fired on a military camp at Kidal and destroyed Iyad Ghaly's home. There were also strikes by French warplanes to the west of Kidal, not far from the village where Iyad Ag Ghaly was born," the official said.

Kidal has been a bastion of Ansar Dine, whose leader Iyad Ag Ghaly is a former soldier and a Tuareg ex-rebel, who formed the group last year.

In April last year after a coup in Bamako, an alliance of Tuareg rebels seeking an independent homeland in the north joined forces with several Islamist groups, seizing Kidal first and then the northern towns of Gao and Timbuktu.

The Islamists quickly sidelined the Tuaregs, imposing a harsh version of Islamic sharia law in the region. Transgressors were flogged, stoned and executed, they banned music and television and forced women to wear veils.

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Out-of-control truck kills 11 in Kenya

AT least 11 people have been killed after a truck lost control and rammed into passengers boarding a ferry in Kenya's port city of Mombasa, the Kenya Red Cross says.

"So far we can confirm 11 deaths from the ferry tragedy. Scores are still trapped at the scene and more than 20 people have been evacuated," Mombasa regional Red Cross chief Mwanaisha Hamisi said on Saturday.

Hamisi confirmed witness accounts of the event, saying "the lorry rammed into the passengers as they were boarding the ferry".

"Its brakes failed then it lost control and hurtled down the ferry's boarding ramp, running over the passengers and trapping people underneath it," she added.

Hamisi said that the death toll could rise as "many people are trapped in the wreckage".

A witness, Hassan Juma, who was on his way to work said he "saw the lorry lose control and ram into a crowd of passengers boarding the ferry".

The area traffic police boss confirmed the incident but was unsure of the number of dead and injured.

"We have dispatched a team to the scene ...We can't tell the exact number of people because there are a lot of people usually crossing the channel," regional traffic police chief Joshua Omukata said.

Mombasa, some 400km southeast of the capital Nairobi is Kenya's main port city and a key tourist hub famed for its sandy beaches.

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Weather goes from bad to worse in Qld

EX-CYCLONE Oswald refused to budge from central Queensland and whipped up three mini-tornadoes that injured at least 17 people, damaged scores of homes and forced the evacuation of towns around Bundaberg on Australia Day.

To the north, floods in Gladstone led to the city being declared a disaster zone and was the biggest concern for authorities on Saturday evening.

Torrential rain topped a metre in 48 hours and has swollen the Boyne River to two metres higher than the previous record.

About five metres of water is pouring over the spillway of the Awoonga Dam into the Boyne, just south of Gladstone.

Tannum Sands and Boyne Island, at the mouth of the Boyne River, narrowly escaped inundation on Saturday.

But they may not be so lucky when an extraordinarily high tide hits on Sunday morning.

"We're now getting ready for the next time when we think we'll have the biggest problem and that's at the high tide on Sunday morning," Gladstone Mayor Gail Sellers told AAP.

About 2000 people have been asked to evacuate.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said a saddle dam off the Awoonga Dam is close to overflowing, which would put 500 homes in peril.

He said the government is considering mandatory evacuations.

"That's my main concern," he said.

Mini-tornadoes that tore through the costal townships of Bargara and Burnett Heads struck after 1pm AEST, damaging homes, shops, a bowling club and government buildings.

Both townships were declared disaster areas.

A man and woman in a parked car on the Esplanade at Bargara were critically injured when a huge pine tree toppled onto the car's roof.

At least 15 other people were treated for minor injuries after being hit by flying glass and other debris.

Queensland emergency services minister Jack Dempsey, who lives in Bundaberg, said 150 homes were damaged at Burnett Heads - and two completely destroyed - by one of three tornadoes to strike the Bundaberg district.

"There are a number of small towns and suburbs that were hit by the mini-tornadoes," Mr Dempsey said.

"We are still trying to assess the extent of the damage."

The third and final mini-tornado badly damaged a home when it hit the coastal town of Coonarr, about 20km south of Bundaberg, at about 4.30pm (AEST).

Mr Newman, who addressed a press conference shortly after the first of the mini-cyclones had struck Bargara, said the Callide and Kroombit Dams, west of Gladstone, were experiencing unprecedented outflows.

Residents at Jambin and Goovigen have been ordered to take refuge on higher ground.

Flood warnings have been issued for the Calliope, Boyne, Baffle and Kolan Rivers.

In Rockhampton, floodwaters have inundated barbecues and car parks along the Fitzroy River.

The river continues to rise as it absorbs about half a metre of rain dumped on the city this week.

Mr Dempsey said the SES has received more than 650 requests for assistance since Friday morning, including more than 130 for Rockhampton, and more than 35 jobs each for Gladstone and Yeppoon.

There were also six swift-water rescues.

"Thankfully they were all very successful outcomes," he told ABC Radio.

A 60-year-old fisherman was found on Balaclava Island on Saturday afternoon, surviving more than 40 hours lost at sea.

His 38-foot fishing vessel began taking on water off Port Alma on Thursday.

Authorities are still searching for the second fisherman on board.

The rain depression is expected to finally mobilise southward overnight to begin tormenting the southeast.

In the next few days about 300mm of rain is expected in Wivenhoe Dam catchment, upstream of Brisbane, and coastal areas could get as much as 500mm.

Mr Newman said controlled releases from the dam are continuing and there is no doubt it will be able to cope with the influx of rainwater in the coming days.

"We can absorb that flood," he said.

The biggest risk will come from suburban creeks in the Gold and Sunshine Coast and greater Brisbane area.

"With all that heavy rain, flash flooding is definitely expected," Ken Kato from the Bureau of Meteorology told AAP.

The Moreton Bay Regional council is warning residents to prepare for tidal surges expected to cause flooding in low lying areas on Saturday and Sunday.

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